JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Recording Studio and Gear Forum Help with recording technique please

Bill,
Yeah, you have the right idea.
You would be actually defining the frequency spectrum for each instrument. Its a blend of 4 control knobs that get the most flavor out of the instrument. You wouldn't necessarily be worried about taking away or lowering the range that doesn't matter. Its more about finding and setting the ranges that do matter or that does bring out or accentuate the best flavors from high highs, to low lows. Once you get comfortable with the basic idea, then you may start to work with getting bad stuff out of a recording by de-emphasizing bad frequencies.
There are three components, the range controller in terms of hz to khz, the control volume (pushes and pulls each range) kind of adds and takes away flavor if you will. SO with that being said, if you add a bad flavor or ingredient, in this case an undesriable frequecy, the tone control volume will accentuate that bad flavor. If you add a good ingredient or flavor or frequency, and accentuate it, it will bring out the desirable flavor in the instrument. The third component is the fader or overall mix volume of the instrument. That is what people usually are messing with when they say they are mixing. I am not talking about fader volume at all at this point.
The (frequency) ranges should differ from instrument to instrument. You should never have a guitar as low as 30hz, but a kick drum or lower end of a bass guitar maybe. That same kick may have a high high control settng of 10kHz. So the range of the kick may be from low low control at 30hz pushed to +6 and inbetween settings in the low mid to high mid, then the high high setting at 10kHz pushed to +4 or something. That gives me a sub kick punch, nice high click definition and the middle settings I keep to myself:) You get the idea.
How do you know. Mostly by experimenting. Sometimes you can go online and search for appropriate bass guitar, guitar or drum frequency settings and get some ideas, but the best way is to find them yourself. Due to mic placement changes, or addition of an odd instrument to a recording, it can change a little from one recording to another. I went online to find bass frequency ideas. I was having a hard time getting the bass from stepping over everything else. I tracked down a site and the person said they like to push the 300 hz on bass guitar. That gave me a start. I knew that at least commonly pleasant bass frequencies should be accentuated in that range. Say I get a nice full round bass sound at 300hz on the low mid control setting and push it a little say +6 on the volume (not fader). I decide I want some ping as well to the low to bottom roundness, so I go to the high mid control knob and set the range at 5K and play with the volume. This wont get me the high definitiion but is starts to pull out the frequencies that will get me there, Then say I add in the high high 10kHz and push it a little until I hear the nice ping I want.
Bill, hope this is not too confusing. It hits me a little at home though. I would post the mics I use, the pre-amps, software, input devices etc... etc..., but giving away mixing secrets is harder. Mixing is what seperates the boys from the men as far as I am concerned. There are many ways to approach it and different philosophies, but its kind of hard to just give away your common settings. Hope you understand. Plus, I am learing more everyday about mixing.
Talk to ya later,
Tommy